rip,
and gathering her skirts in her hand, moved towards the path. 'Come
along,' she cried; 'we shall be late for dinner.'

He followed her slowly, his hands in his pockets and his mind besieged
with countless thoughts. As he crossed the lawn he looked up.

From a window in the tower of Roselawn there was shining an angry,
blood-red reflection of the sun's dying moments.

VI.

It was a few minutes after midnight when the party at Roselawn retired
to their rooms. There had been an impromptu dance, following some
spirited bridge, and there was more than the usual chaffing and
laughter as the guests dispersed to the various wings of the house.

Tired with the many events of the day, the American quickly undressed,
and soothed by the comfort of cool sheets, lay in that relaxation of
mind and body which prefaces the panacea of sleep. With half-closed
eyes and drowsy semi-consciousness he heard the sounds of life growing
less and less in the roomy passages of Roselawn, as his mind lingered
over the burning memory of Elise's proximity a few hours before. He
felt again the perfume of her hair and the radiant freshness of her
womanhood, with its inexplicable sense of spring-time. And memory,
with its power of exquisite torture, recalled to his mind the
questioning eyes and the trembling, beckoning lips.

The soft chime of a clock downstairs sounded the passing of another
hour. Its murmuring echo died to a silence unbroken by any sound save
that of the summer breeze playing about the eaves and towers of the
house.

Minutes passed. His thoughts blurred into the gathering shadows of
sleep.

Of a sudden he was awake, his eyes staring into the dark, his whole
body nervously, acutely, on the alert. He had heard a cry--of a
nightjar--but so strange and eerie that it made him hold his breath.

The call was repeated. An owl answered with a creepy cry of alarm.
Selwyn muttered impatiently at the trick played upon him by his nerves,
and turning over, was about to settle again to slumber, when he heard a
door softly opening. Light footsteps passed in the hall, stopping at
each creaking board as though suspicious that some one might hear; then
their sound was lost in the thick carpet of the stairway.

For a minute there was complete silence. He heard from below the
cautious opening of the side-door leading to the lawn.

Wondering what mischief was on foot, he rose from his bed, and peering
through the window, trie